Correction device for day-and-date calendar watches

ABSTRACT

A correction mechanism for a calendar watch which connects a control organ such as the winding stem of the watch to first and second indicating organs such as day and date indicators. The correction mechanism comprises a driving organ which is one element of a jointed system with four joints. The driving organ has two drive beaks associated, respectively, with the first and second indicating organs. The beaks move together in a noncircular, closed curve in which one beak moves in a clockwise direction while the other beak is moving in a counter-clockwise direction. When a beak moves in one direction about the noncircular curve it will advance its associated indicating organ one step whereas movement of that beak in the opposite direction will not cause such indicating organ to advance one step.

United States Patent Schmid 1 Dec. 18, 1973 CORRECTION DEVICE FOR3,645,090 2/1972 Mochizuki et al. 58/58 DAY AND DATE CALENDAR WATCHES3,662,534 5/1972 Columb 58/58 3,69l,756 9/1972 Ono 58/58 [75] Inventor:Peter Schmid, Diessbach b. Bueren,

Switzerland [73] Assignee: Societe Suisse pour llndustrie l-llorlogereManagement Services SA, Bienne, Switzerland [22] Filed: Oct. 3, 1972[21] Appl. No.: 294,507

[30] Foreign Application Priority Data Oct. 6, l97l Switzerland 14542/7152 us. (:1. 58/58 [5l] Int. Cl. G04b 19/24 [58] Field of Search 58/4, 5,58

[56] References Cited UNlTED STATES PATENTS 3,659,4l3 5/1972 Tanaka etal. 58/58 3,470,687 l0/l969 Ono et al. 58/58 3,470,688 lO/l969 Miyasaka58/58 3,597,916 8/l97l Nakagawa 58/58 I Primary Examiner-George H.Miller, Jr. Attorney-Richard K. Stevens et al.

[ 57] ABSTRACT A correction mechanism for a calendar watch whichconnects a control organ such as the winding stem of the watch to firstand second indicating organs such as day and date indicators. Thecorrection mechanism comprises a driving organ which is one element of ajointed system with four joints. The driving organ has two drive beaksassociated, respectively, with the first and second indicating organs.The beaks move together in a non-circular, closed curve in which onebeak moves in a clockwise direction while the other beak is moving in acounter-clockwise direction. When a beak moves in one direction aboutthe noncircular curve it will advance its associated indicating organone step whereas movement of that beak in the opposite direction willnot cause such indicating organ to advance one step.

6 Claims, 5 Drawing Figures PATENTEB DEC 18 I913 SHEET 1 BF 3 I m FPATENTEU DEC] 8 I973 SHEET 3 OF 3 mm mm R mm R CORRECTION DEVICE FORDAY-AND-DATE CALENDAR WATCHES The present invention relates to acorrection device for a day and date calendar watch comprising a controlorgan which is accessible from the outside of the watch and a controlmechanism which may be put into a correction position in order toconnect said control organ to an indicating organ which indicates theday and date.

It is known to provide calendar watches with a correction device whichallows movement of the indicating organ(s) of the calendar from theoutside of the watch without requiring movement of the hour-handposition and the minute-handposition. Such a device can correct thecalendar either when the watch is put into operation or at the end of amonth of less than 31 days and with a rapid operation that does notaffect the setting of the watch. When the setting of the minute hand isregulated with respect to that of the second hand in a high precisionwatch, it is important that such setting not be disturbed when acalendar correction is performed.

In simple date-indicating watches, correction devices exist which nolonger cause appreciable difficulties. However, the correction devicesthat have been proposed for use in day and date watches in general havebeen so conceived as to introduce supplementary elements to devicesmeant for a simple date watch and, therefore, cumbersome and complexdevices, which are difficult to adjust have resulted.

Thus, correction mechanisms are known which may be controlled by thewinding stem when placed the socalled correction position which is anaxial position.

However, the in transmission of the rotation motion of the stem to theindicating organ which one wishes to correct requires, in these knowndevices, that use be made of complex mechanisms that generally includewheel-and-pinions made up of several elements, for example, a toothedwheel and a star wheel fastened to each other or coupled to one another,such wheel-andpinions themselves being supported by levers or rockingbars. The different parts of those mechanisms must be assembled in thevicinity of the stem between the indicating organs and the minute wheel,and often it is dificult to find a compact arrangement that will allowplacing them in such manner that their gearing will take place withoutdanger of blocking or haphazard rotation.

Therefore, the purpose of the present invention is to provide acorrection device of the kind mentioned above which will be simpler tomanufacture and the setting of which will be less complex than in knowndevices.

Certain known driving devices which are used for the daily driving ofthe date or date-and-day watches comprise movable parts driven by aneccentric or by a rotating finger, such movable parts being, forexample, guided by pins in such manner as to describe a complex motionof translation and of rotation on the bottom plate. However, in theseknown mechanisms, this part is located between the date crown and theday-star and takes up much space in the annular space extending betweenthese two organs. It was not evident that making use of a plate of thiskind was possible; however, making use of the plate presents anadvantage with respect to the correction mechanism because of thenecessity to array the elements of these mechanisms in the vicinity ofthe control stem.

The correction device according to the present invention is thuscharacterized in that the control mechanism comprises a driving organwhich constitutes an element of a jointed system with four joints.

The attached drawings illustrate an embodiment of the device accordingto the invention.

FIG. I is a diagram of a plane jointed system with four joints.

FIG. 2 is a top view of an embodiment of the device according to thepresent invention.

FIG. 3 is a top view, on another scale, of the control mechanism of thedevice shown in FIG. 2.

FIG. 4 is a section along the line lV-IV of FIG. 3.

FIG. 5 is a section along the line V-V of FIG. 3.

A plane jointed system with four joints comprising two fixed pointsalways may be shown diagrammatically as illustrated in FIG. 1. Such asystem comprises three movable arms M,,-A, AB and B-M The two joints Mand M connect one of the arms to a fixed base while the two joints A andB each connect one of the movable arms M -A or M,,B to the connectingrod AB. Such a system is entirely deterministic and comprises only onedegree of freedom. In other words, any displacement departed to one ofthe arms, for example to arm M, A, causes determined displacements inthe other two arms. The arms M,,A and M B can only rotate about thejoints M and M whereas the connecting rod AB describes a complex motionwhich is resolvable into translations and into rotations. According tothe relative dimensions of the different system elements, thedisplacement amplitudes may vary. In particular, one may assign suchdimensions to the system that the arm M,,A may execute a completerotation around the joint M M,,A being a crank handle. Therefore, onewill in general obtain a limited amplitude motion of joint B about jointM M,,B being a balance. If the connecting rod AB is made up of a platehaving a certain width, all the points of this plate may be taken intoaccount, for instance such points as E and F, and one may study thepaths they will describe when the jointed system will deform. Knowncomputational methods will allow one to determine the paths of any pointof the elements of the system such as shown in FIG. I when thedetermining elements of the system are fixed. inversely, the initialcondition may be made up of the paths that one wishes to have two pointsfollow in one of the system elements, for instance such points as E andF of the connecting rod AB, and one may determine the position of thesepoints with respect to joints A and B, and one may also determine thedetermining elements of the system so as to satisfy the initialconditions.

Thus, when one wishes to make use of this method in order to resolve theproblem of execution of a correction device for a date-and-day watch,one observes that a jointed system with four joints, such as shown inFIG. 1, does solve this problem. Stated more precisely, a solution tothe problem will be found when one makes use of a jointed system such asthe system M A, B, M,, of FIG. 1, in which the length of the balance M-B is infinite. It is obvious that this case may be realized in practiceby constraining point B to move in a straight line, that is byconnecting one end of the connecting rod AB to the fixed base by meansof a sliding joint which may be made up of a cylindrical stud in agroove or in a straight slit fashioned in the systems base.

With these stated conditions, the problem now consists of finding thevalue of the length of the crankhandle M A, of finding the shape and thedimensions of the connecting rod A-B, so that two points of the latter,namely the points E and F, each will describe a closed curve passing inthe teeth of one of the calendar indicating organs. Also, it is assumedthat those parts of the connecting rod AB which form points E and F willgrip the teeth of these organs and thus cause a displacement of theseorgans such that each one will jump by one step when the curve isfollowed in one direction, whereas when the curve is followed in theother direction it will be slightly displaced and will return to itsinitial position.

Now, experience has shown that when starting from such conditions, onecould achieve a jointed system of small size and that, furthermore, theconnecting rod AB of this system does comprise a point (not shown inFIG. 1) which practically follows a closed path reducing to a linesegment which will be followed by that point once in one direction andonce in the other. As will be seen below, such circumstance allowsexecution of a correction device with a particularly advantageousoperation.

FIG. 2 illustrates a practical embodiment of the system of FIG. 1. Thedrawing shows a date ring 1 which is provided with a toothing 2 of illteeth and which is normally maintained in a rest position by placing thejumper beak 3 between two teeth 2. Jumper beak 3 is conventionallyactuated by a spring 4. These elements are assembled on the bottom plateof a calendar watch movement and the date ring 1 is normally actuated byone step every day by means of a calendar mechanism (not shown). Aday-star 5, having seven teeth, is coaxial with ring 1 and also extendsin the same plane as the date ring 1. Day-star 5 is maintained in a restposition by jumper 6 which is actuated by spring 7. This star 5,

' too, is controlled each day by calendar mechanism elements which arenot shown in the drawing.

The correction device of the watch movement shown in the drawingcomprises a circular disc 8 rotating around an axis which is rotativelymounted on the movement bottom plate. It may be fastened for instance toa pinion 9 which may be driven by a control organ such as the windingstem. Thus, a rotation of the winding stem causes a rotation of disc 8around the axis 20 and the center of disc 8 then describes the circularcurve 10. However, as a variation, the rotation of organ 8, pinion 9 maybe driven by any other means such as the auxiliary crown, push-piece,stay, etc.

Disc 8 loosely engages a circular opening provided by the driving organ11. The latter is a blanked metallic plate in the general shape of atriangle provided with three beaks 12, 13 and 14. Beaks 12 and 13 aremade up of cut-out languets that are blanked with the metallic plate andare folded by 90 upwards, whereas beak 14 is simply shaped by a cut-outin the form of a crescent in the periphery of the metallic plate 11.This plate is housed on the movement bottom plate and partly extendsunder the date organ 1. As shown in the drawing, the two beaks 12 and 13are in the vicinity of the daystar 5 and of the date toothing 2,respectively. Furthermore, plate 11 is provided with a stud 15projecting perpendicular to a face of plate 11. This stud may be stampedinto plate 11 or may be force-fitted into it. It

engages a rectilinear groove 16 in the bottom plate so as to be capableof moving along the entire length of that groove. Lastly, a springl7'which may be made from an elastic wire or which may consist of ablade rests on beak 14 so as to actuate it into a directionapproximately parallel to that of groove 16.

Because of the explanation given at the beginning, the driving organ 11,the pinion or transmission organ 8, 9, the stud l5 and groove 16 make upa jointed system with four joints comprising two fixed joints of whichone is brought to infinity in a direction perpendicular to the groove16, that is, a jointed system constituting a particular case of that ofFIG. 1. The dimensions of the system are such that the crank-handleM,,-A constituted by organ 8,9 may perform a complete rotation aroundits axis while the driving organ 1 1which constitutes the connecting rodAB, will assume a determined position for each orientation of thetransmission organ 8,9, where such position is obtained by thedisplacement of stud 15 in groove 16. The points of the jointed systemcorresponding to points E and F of FIG. 1 are those obtained by each ofthe edges of the folded-over languets 12 and 13, and the paths thesepoints describe when the transmission organ 9 rotates about its axis arerepresented by curves l8 and 19. It will be seen that these curves areellipses. When organ 8,9 rotates around its axis 20 in the sense of thewatch hands, the active edges of the two eaks l2 and 13 respectivelyfollow curves 18 and 19 counterclockwise.

FIG. 2 shows in solid lines the various organs of the mechanism when ina rest position in which the two jumpers 6 and 3 keep the day and dateindicating organ in such orientation that each one of these organscauses one of its indications to appear in the appropriate window in thedial. When the transmission organ 8,9 is made to rotate clockwise aroundthe axis 20, the beak 13 will follow curve 19 in the counter-clockwisesense, and will grip immediately a tooth 2 and cause the date organ 1 tomove in the counter-clockwise direction, as can be seen. This motionwill proceed until the jointed mechanism and the date organ have reachedthe position shown in dashed lines in FIG. 2. The displacement of beak12 which follows curve 18 in the counterclockwise direction, will notalter the position of star 5 nor that of jumper 6. On the other hand, itsuffices that the teeth 2, which were behind the beak point of jumperbeak 3, pass in front of this point. Under the influence of spring 4,the jumper beak 3, therefore, may cause the teeth 2 it is touching toslide by terminating the motion of date ring 1 so as to effect acomplete step in the sense of the increasing date-numerals the momentthe position shown in dashed lines has been reached. The date-ring 1,therefore, will advance by one step. When the motion of organ 8,9proceeds, beak 13 follows the end of path 19 without touching the dateorgan 1 but, on the other hand, beak 12 will slightly grip one of theteeth of star 5. The displacement imparted to the latter is notsufficient for the beak of jumper 6 to pass above one of the teeth it istouching and, therefore, the star 5 will finally rest in the sameposition when the control organ has performed a complete revolution. Themechanism then is again in the position shown in solid lines.

Thus, rotation of organ 8,9 in the clockwise sense will correct thedate-ring l by one step.

lnversely, a rotation of this transmission organ 8,9 in thecounter-clockwise sense causes beaks 12 and 13 to follow paths l8 and I9in the clockwise sense and brings the described elements in the positionshown in clashes in FIG. 2. It will be observed that the displacementimparted to star 5 is sufficient to insure the commutation of this starunder the influence of jumper 6 when the date-ring I has not beendisplaced.

Thus, a rotation of the transmission organ 8,9 in the counter-clockwisesense will correct only the day star.

In the embodiment described herein, the control organ is constituted bythe winding stem 21 of the movement. This stem is provided at its outerend with a crown 37 and is arrayed radially in the movement. In controlsa setting lever 22 which may assume three different positions which aredetermined by the three notches 23a, 23b and 23c which are fashioned inthe setting lever spring 23 and at the top thereof. The inside positionof stem 2B is the winding position. The clutch-pinion 24 is then kept inplace by lever 25 and by the spring lever 26 so that it will gear thewinding pinion 27. This position is not shown in the drawing. Rotationof stem 21 causes rotation of the crown wheel (not shown) andconsequently the winding of the spring motor.

In the intermediate position of stem 21, which is that shown in solidlines in FIG. 3, the setting lever 22 will maintain lever 25 in such aposition that the clutchpinion 24, by means of its toothing, will engagesetting wheel 28. Lever 29, which pivots around the same axis as settingwheel 28 and to which is connected the setting wheel 30, is kept inplace by spring 31 so that the setting wheel will simultaneously mesh inwith pinion 9 and with setting wheel 28. In this position, rotation ofstem 21 will cause pinion 9 to rotate and consequently it will cause arotation of transmission organ 8. Thus the winding stem 21 controlscorrection as previously described.

lf the stem 21 is pulled into its third axial position (shown in dashedlines in FIG. 3), setting lever 22 will move by keeping the lever inplace, but its front edge 32 will cause lever 29 to pivot so thatsetting wheel 30 will be freed from pinion 9 and will engage the minutewheel 33. The latter simultaneously actuates the hourwheel 34 and thecannon-pinion 35 as in any other conventional hour-setting mechanism.

It will be noticed that due to the unique driving organ lll, the axis ofrotation of wheel and pinion 8,9 could be placed in the immediatevicinity of the periphery of the bottom plate of the movement and thatthe setting wheel 30 may be so located as to radially engage pinion 9and the minute wheel 33, and this set of factors pro vides particularlyfavorable conditions for meshing in.

The above described mechanism offers the advantage of being extremelyeasily executed and of requiring very little space since in sum itcomprises only the eccentric 8,9 and the driving organ II. It comprisesstill another advantage in that beak I4 is at such a location that thecurve 36 described by it is in a shape very close to an extremelyelongated ellipse. This curve may be practically likened to a simpleline stretching between these two end points and which line is crossedby beak 14 once in one direction and once in the other direction, duringthe rotation of the control organ. The position held by beak I4 when themechanism is at rest is one of the extreme points of this line which isalmost straight and parallel to groove 16. Therefore, if the mechanismis freed by uncoupling the clutch-pinion from the pinion 9 when thismechanism is in a location different from that shown in solid lines inthe drawing, the driving organ I1 and the transmission organ 8,9 willautomaticaly be brought back to this rest position by spring 17. Now,this rest position is such that star 5 and date-ring 1 may move withouttouching beaks l2 and 13. Therefore, the correction device as describedwill entirely release the calendar mechanism when it is in the restposition and this allows automatic commutation of the date and of theday in normal operation of the watch.

Lastly, it will be observed again that in order to insure the jumping ofthe indicating organ under the in fluence of the displacements impartedby the driving organ 11, the beaks ofjumpers 3 and 6 may beasymmetrical, one of the flanks being longer than the other. This is thecase for jumper 3 in the embodiment shown in the drawing.

The above specifications and the relevant drawings therefor show thatall of the functions of a correction mechanism in a date-and-day watchmay be obtained by using a jointed mechanism with four joints comprisingtwo fixed points as connection between a control organ and theindicating organs. It is obvious however that such a mechanism may befashioned in an infinite number of different ways, differing from theexamples shown according to the shape and the dimensions of the systemelements. in particular, curves l8 and 19 may vary as regards shape anddimension. The direction in which these curves are crossed may also varyaccording to the arrangement selected. Thus, rather than the correctiondevice correcting the date alone when the control organ rotates in onedirection and the day alone when the control organ rotates in the otherdirection, one may execute a mechanism commutating the date and the daywhen the control organ is rotated in one direction and the day only whenone is rotating the control organ in the other direction, such avariation being only mentioned as an illustration of the manifoldpossibilities being offered by the described device.

There is another example flowing directly from the discussion above,particularly the case when the correction device is combined with thecommutation device of the calendar. In that case the jointed system withfour joints may be part of a more complex system of which certain pointsof certain elements will insure the commutation of the indicating organsof the calendar starting from the movement, other points of anotherelement of the system being made use of in order to effect thecorrections. In such a case it is obvious that at least one of thejoints that was considered as being fixed in the system of four jointsas illustrated in the drawing may be constrained to certaindisplacements imparted by other system elements.

What is claimed is:

1. Apparatus for selectively correcting the positions of indicatingmembers of a calendar watch, comprising:

a control member extending from the interior to the exterior of saidwatch;

first and second indicating members;

holding means normally holding said first and second indicating membersin selected ones of a plurality of available positions;

a wheel;

gear means connecting said wheel with said control member;

an eccentric mounted on said wheel for movement therewith;

a driving member coupled to said eccentric for movement therewith, saiddriving member having a stud attached thereto;

a member fixed against movement with said driving member and having agroove engaging said stud, and

first and second driving beaks on said driving member, said beaksengaging said first and second indicating members, respectively, duringa complete rotation of said eccentric, said driving member following arestricted definte path of movement and said beaks followingnon-circular paths of movement during said complete rotation.

2. A device according to claim 1 wherein said groove is rectilinear.

3. A device according to claim 1 comprising a jumper, having anasymmetrical beak, which normally maintains an indicating member in afixed position, said beak having two ramps of unequal length.

4. Apparatus according to claim 1, wherein said first and secondindicating members have toothed portions and said holding meanscomprises first and second jumper members biased into engagement withrespective toothed portions of said first and second indicating members.

5. Apparatus according to claim 4, wherein said driving member ismounted for engagement with said indicating members such that movementof a driving beak in one direction against a corresponding indicatingmember produces insufiicient movement of said corresponding indicatingmember to advance said indicating member by one full step against thebiasing action of the corresponding jumper member and movement of saiddriving beak in the opposite direction against said correspondingindicating member advances said indicating member one full step againstthe biasing action of said corresponding jumper member.

6. Apparatus according to claim 5, further comprising a resilientmember; and wherein said driving member includes a third beak describinga flattened curve between two end points, said resilient membercontactsaid first and second indicating members.

1. Apparatus for selectively correcting the positions of indicatingmembers of a calendar watch, comprising: a control member extending fromthe interior to the exterior of said watch; first and second indicatingmembers; holding means normally holding said first and second indicatingmembers in selected ones of a plurality of available positions; a wheel;gear means connecting said wheel with said control member; an eccentricmounted on said wheel for movement therewith; a driving member coupledto said eccentric for movement therewith, said driving member having astud attached thereto; a member fixed against movement with said drivingmember and having a groove engaging said stud, and first and seconddriving beaks on said driving member, said beaks engaging said first andsecond indicating members, respectively, during a complete rotation ofsaid eccentric, said driving member following a restricted definte pathof movement and said beaks following non-circular paths of movementduring said complete rotation.
 2. A device according to claim 1 whereinsaid groove is rectilinear.
 3. A device according to claim 1 comprisinga jumper, having an asymmetrical beak, which normally maintains anindicating member in a fixed position, said beak having two ramps ofunequal length.
 4. Apparatus according to claim 1, wherein said firstand second indicating members have toothed portions and said holdingmeans comprises first and second jumper members biased into engagementwith respective toothed portions of said first and second indicatingmembers.
 5. Apparatus according to claim 4, wherein said driving memberis mounted for engagement with said indicating members such thatmovement of a driving beak in one direction against a correspondingindicating member produces insufficient movement of said correspondingindicating member to advance said indicating member by one full stepagainst the biasing action of the corresponding jumper member andmovement of said driving beak in the oppOsite direction against saidcorresponding indicating member advances said indicating member one fullstep against the biasing action of said corresponding jumper member. 6.Apparatus according to claim 5, further comprising a resilient member;and wherein said driving member includes a third beak describing aflattened curve between two end points, said resilient member contactingsaid third beak to bias said driving member toward a position whereinsaid first and second driving beaks are held away from the pathsdescribed by the teeth of said first and second indicating members.